American Cherishes Diversity Analysis

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A common debate around the world is whether or not America cherishes diversity. Authors such as Edward Patel and Jena McGregor have differing view points on this topic and numerous amounts of points to back it up. Patel argues that America cherishes diversity because political leaders such as George Washington and Martin Luther King fought to have a country with all groups of people that are willing to demean themselves as good citizens and help the country grow. On the other hand, McGregor believes that American industries like Hollywood limit high roles to white males. In the discussions of whether or not America cherishes diversity in my class, one controversial issue has been that America was once a slave country. On the one hand, fifty …show more content…

According to Patel in, “ Making the Future Better, Together,” he states that, “ Washington came to his views through both principle and practical experience. As the leader of the continental army, the first truly national institution, Washington recognized he was going to need the contributions of all willing groups in America. Back then, it was a common anti-catholic practice to burn the pope in effigy. Washington banned this... and brought this ethic to his private life. When seeking a carpenter and a bricklayer for his Mount Vernon estate, he remarked, If they are good workmen, they may be of Asia, Africa, or Europe. They may be Mohometans, Jews or Christians of any Sect, or they may be atheists.” In other words Patel believes, America has been built for diversity by leaders like Washington because they believed that as long as people demeaned themselves as good citizens and followed American principles that they could join the country. Since the country has followed this idea, Patel believes that today many groups of people are in this country based on these principles because they love the country and want to watch it grow. I agree with Patel because we have many different groups of people in America that are interacting with each other and love it here. Granted, our country discriminated blacks in the past, but our country has learned from Washington …show more content…

This means that our country has people of all different races in it, which supports the idea that America cherishes diversity. It is true on the other hand, that our founding fathers like Washington were slave owners. However, that doesn't change the ideas Washington fought for according to Martin Luther King. According to Patel, “ What strikes me about King's use of George Washington as a symbol of Democracy is that King's great grand parents could well have been owned by George Washington. The man who welcomed Jews and Catholics into the nation, the man who spoke of a government that gave bigotry no sanction and persecution no assistance, he was a slaveholder. King new this, but it neither paralyzed him nor made him cynical. He didn't tie himself into knots trying to untie that mother of all contradictions. Instead, he committed himself, body and soul, to shaping the future. America's genius is to give its diversity of citizens a stake in the well- being of the nation. That's what keeps us facing forward, seeking inspiration from the past when possible, correcting mistakes when necessary. This nation could very well have been a house divided, but today we stand as one...” In this quote Patel's message is that even though leaders like Washington were slave holders their ideas are what matters. King understood this and used Washington's points to justify that

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